Fabric finding and another Vogue 8710

Originally I had intended this post to be a quick 5 minute chat to myself about the Vogue 8710 top.  I had made this before and had in mind to make another version, I never got around to it, mainly because I forgot due to not finding the lace type fabric I wanted to use.  Then whilst shopping at the local market for something inexpensive to use for a muslin of another project muslin (Bluegingerdoll's Winifred) I found just what I had in mind.  It was perfect, a two way stretch bonded lace, I was expecting it to be expensive but when the stall holder told me it was £4.50 per meter I nearly fell over.


Of course as usual I came away with more fabric than I intended to buy but I was quite reserved this visit.
I purchased,

1m of bonded lace
3m of black cotton/lycra jersey
3m navy/white polycotton, all this only came to £18 ($30) I love this fabric stall.

This made me realised that I have some amazing fabric finding places in and around my city and some even within walking distance of my home.   I thought I might like to make everyone super jealous of the fantabulous fabric shops and stall I have at my disposal.

Here is the local market stall where I made the purchases above, he has hundreds and hundreds of rolls of fabric, its all inexpensive and I never found anything more than £5($8.50) per meter.

Fabric stall (John Street Market)

This photo was taken on a day where the stall owner had obviously tidied up because you really have to route through the stock to find what you are looking for.

This is a great place to buy cheap fabric but I guess you get what you pay for and it is certainly not my favourite place.

The place I buy fabric from most frequently is a place called Bombay Stores and apparently it is world famous.  It is an Asian department store in Bradford (where I live) and I can literally walk there from home in around 10 minutes.  You are not allowed to take photographs inside the store, mostly because they sell wedding dresses and jewellery with a value equal to a small pacific island, the wedding dresses are amazing, all hand beaded silks with drapery to die for, but the price tags are phenomenal.

I found this video on youtube,  please don't watch all of it but fast forward to around  the time of 5:14 watch until 7:40  minutes and I guarantee for 2 whole minutes you will drool and wish you could be let loose in the place with a gold card to hand, and yes they really do have that many rolls of fabric at £1.10 ($1.85) per meter or £1 ($1.68) per yard.  I tried to count rolls of fabric in there one time but stopped once I attempted one section and lost count (mostly because I was distracted by some beautiful shot silk organza that changed colour from purple to pink in the light), but I estimate there are over 3000.  As you can see they sell notions and decorative bits and pieces too (11:53 - 12:34 minutes), more than you can ever imagine.

There are few more places I purchase fabric too, I love The Shuttle in Shipley which is about 8 miles from my home, this place has been mentioned before in several blogs (Tree Fall,  and Did you make that?) and for good reason.  They stock some of the best dress making fabric around and are reasonably priced, they have great sales a couple of times a year too.  The shop is fairly small and the first time I went there I thought to myself "is that it?  "what's all the fuss about?" (I did come away with Liberty Lawn at £8pm)  then I was shown into the back room..... OMG!!!  it is stocked from floor to ceiling with fabric but you really do have to search, climb and route through it, it takes time but they have everything any dressmaker could need.

The Shuttles, back room

Then we have the Pièce de résistance seriously you would love this place, everyone I know that sews loves this place. It is called B&M fabrics and is based in Leeds market.  it maybe small but it really packs some punch, if they don't stock it you really don't need it and their prices are AMAZING! 

Adrienne from All style and No Substance did a brilliant blog post about this place a while ago I do have to take a bus or train to get here but it only takes 30 minutes and it is well worth it.

So thats about it.........

Oh yeah I was meant to be showing you my Vogue 8710 but I got distracted, here it is on a hanger (sorry for the photo quality it was a last minute phone job) because I just haven't got around to wearing it yet.

Liberty Washi Tunic

shirring at the back

I finished my Washi tunic, I like it, just like...  I wish I had done a bust alteration as it pulls and feels a little tight. I cut it out on the pattern guide but I wish I had made it a little longer, never mind, there is always next time and this will get worn.  

Beautiful French seams

Lining machine stitched to upper bodice

The inside of the tunic is almost as pretty as the outside, after finally conquering shirring I had a go at French seams and machine stitching the lining in place (rather than doing it by hand).



I even managed to sew a beautiful evenly spaced double row stitiched hem.

hem

I blooming well did it!!!!

Well I have been sewing for just over a year now and I have learned a lot, I guess I would say I am an advanced beginner.  I can do straight stitching, have almost mastered bindings and interfacing but could I get shirring?   NO NO NO...  I tried and I tried and I tried but I just couldn't do it.

First Washi Tunic (front view only because the back is ugly)

My first attempt was when I was sewing my first Washi tunic/top but I gave up and did a random sewing in of 1.5inch wide elastic, it is wearable but not the prettiest sewing ever.  That front looks beautiful but the back????  Well it has the 'I guess I will keep my cardigan on' look.

Shirring (not amazingly straight but pretty damn good)

Well today I started to work on another Washi, made from beautiful Liberty lawn fabric.  I was going to sew a casing but I thought I would give shirring one more try and guess what??? 

It worked, I did it.  I will hopefully show you the finished Washi in the next day or so but for now you can look at my beautifully shirred back and tell me what  good job I did.  hehehehehehehheh!!!

Buttons Buttons Everywhere!

This weekend I managed to finish (well almost finish) a couple of garments I have had in my unfinished items pile for a while.  The first one was my favourite and most sewn pattern (Butterick 4443) to date in a quirky button print cotton lawn fabric which I purchased in the sale at £4 per meter ($6.72) it is black with brightly coloured buttons printed all over it.

I had sewn the dress up a while ago but got disheartened when the lining became twisted and pulled the bodice out of shape.  Well I decided to try and sort it out.  It worked out wearable although the shoulders are a little on the large side and gape a little.  I made a simple belt to go around the waist and decorated it with a random buttons from my stash, I loved sewing them on with contrasting thread, they look so cute.

The dress in now finished and although it not the best fitting I ever made it is wearable.  Please excuse the photographs today it was the best I could capture whist balancing my camera on top of my sewing machine, an without spending hours washing, drying and styling my hair.

Gertie for Butterick 6031 - Sew, sew then sew some more...

I just love time off from work to do what I want.  I am very blessed to work term time only (I wasn't calling it blessed last week when I worked approximately 60 hours) so for the next two weeks I have time off from the day job to sew, sew and sew some more.   I mentioned a few post back that I intended to sew along with Gertie during the next few weeks to create a full slip for wearing as an under garment. 

Fabric and Notions

 Well I sourced by materials and pattern and have been waiting for what seems like ever..... I am very inpatient when it comes to waiting and very excited when it comes to sewing so I just couldn't wait any longer so decided to go it alone.

I got out of bed this morning and decided that today was the day so after a cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast I set to work.  The pattern was simple enough only 4 pieces in total, I cut out the pieces grading out where needed (around by huge bottom) which was easy and quick to complete.  

I chose to use a micro stretch jersey which has a beautiful drape and brushed surface, this was suggested by Gertie herself and I managed to source some at a really good price in the UK at an online shop called Tia Knight Fabrics finding the right width and colour stretch lace was a little more of a challenge but thank to ebay I managed to find a 5m length at a good price.  I cut out the fabric which is done on the cross grain, this was the trickiest part of the whole process.

zig zag overstitched narrow seam - this is the bust dart seam

Now it was machine time, with a ball point needle inserted and coordinating thread in place I started to follow the instructions to sew.   I am not yet the owner of a serger/overlocker (I am waiting for my birthday which is in November so I have to wait a while yet) so all the sewing was completed on my trusty brother sewing machine.   I trimmed the seams in the bra sections and zig zagged along the edge to stop rolling or fraying of the fabric (it is a knit fabric so I guess that should be to stop the unknitting of the fabric).  It worked out fine and should stand up to quite a bit of wear.

I completed the slip within a few hours and it really is pretty, comfortable and functional, the only issue i had is that in haste to get it complete I cut the v shaped split at the bottom the wrong side, it doesn't effect the wear-ability but it does feel a little akward. 

Fabric cut away under lace

Here are a couple more photos of the beautiful lace and the cut away sections (trimmed to make flesh visible) 

Beautiful lace - this is the hemline of the slip

I used Madge (my dress form) today to model my garment because well.....  I am just to prudish to be seen in my underwear on the internet, although it looks better on me than it does on her, ( you will have to take my word for it but I think her red cover is not such a good look for modelling underwear).

Another Butterick 4443

After seeing and admiring Fiona's from Diary of a Chainstitcher's beautiful version of By Hand London's, Flora dress I fell in love with the John Kaldor viscose fabric, this is very unusual because I am not really into floral prints but for some reason I just needed a dress made in this fabric.  After I sourced the fabric I decided to make a Butterick 4443

I really like the shape of this dress on me and have almost got the fit perfect (I have sewn 4 of these dresses now). 

The fabric has a beautiful soft drape and is super comfortable against the skin, however it frays real bad and stretches out of shape if over handled.

I finished the dress today and it fits well but needs to be laundered before I know whether or not it will be wearable because the fabric is a little stretched over the bodice and has some baggy bits, I think they will wash back into shape (hopefully).  I only managed to et a quick shot with my phone camera but here she is, not quite as beautiful as Fiona's Flora but I still love it.

Pattern Testing the Winter Street Dress

I was very excited to be contacted by Deepika Prakash from patternreview.com to test drive their new 'Winter Street Dress'.  

It was described as  an easy to sew knit dress with a waist seam and a narrow pleated skirt.  I was up for the knit fabric and the waist seam part but as a plus sized lady I usually avoid pleats like the plague.  However once I had seen the pattern and Deepika's version I realised that the pleated skirt is nothing like I initially imagined.

Once I had downloaded the pattern (you can get it here) I thought carefully about how and when I was likely to wear it and what fabric to use, I decided on a black ponte roma with animal print, I haven't sewn with ponte before so I hope to learn something new along the way.

Here is my review of the pattern, and my version of the dress, I have used prompts from Deepika to outline what you may need to know, if I don't have it covered please feel free to ask any questions.

1. Was it easy to assemble?

Yes, it took a while to print and piece everything together but it was super easy to get it

 in the right order due to the alphanumeric pages and colour coded sizing on the pattern pieces.

2. Did the pattern pieces match 

up? Yes (see above)

Any drafting errors? Not that I see, however if you are in the UK you need to adjust the printer settings to 8.5"x11", the pattern then prints perfectly on A4 paper.

 
3. Which size did you use? 

Right well here goes.... You see I don't have one of those bodies that like to adhere to one size.  I can thank my paternal grandmother for blessing me with a ridiculously over sized rear and hips.  I usually have to make some      serious grading alterations when sewing one piece outfits like dresses.  For this project I cut an XL in the bodice and graded out from the waist seam to a 2XL.

What is your full bust size?  My full bust measures 43.5", whilst I am sharing my body measurements and shape I might as well tell you everything you never know there might be someone else out there that is the same shape as me.  High bust 41" and under bust 39"

4. Which fabric did you use?

I used a Ponte Roma knit fabric with one sided border print, the main fabric is black with a lilac and cream animal print border.  I have never sewn with Ponte before but I certainly will be again and very soon, its a dream fabric, is has stretch, doesn't fray or roll and wears well.  It took a little bit of creativity in the cutting out of the pattern because where I wanted the print to be once the dress was finished.








I used a ball point 80 needle and my usual Gutterman sew all polyester thread.


5. Did you need to do any pattern alterations for fit? I graded out from and XL to a 2XL from the waist seam because of my huge bottom and hips, I also shortened the skirt and sleeve length to my preferred length.

6. Did the waist seam hit you at your natural waist? How tall are you? I am 5ft 4inch but I have a very high waist, I usually shorten a bodice but for the purpose of testing this pattern for Deepika I kept to the pattern, it falls just about right on me.

7. Did the garment have the right amount of ease? Just about right. I think it would benefit from some vertical darts in the bodice to give a better shape under the bust.

The dress is super easy to sew and only took about 3 hours to complete from print to finish, it is also very comfortable to wear but I feel a little self conscious in it (see the behind photo).  Please excuse the state of my hair today it is very windy and cold here in Yorkshire UK.

I am number 10 on the blog tour, but there are still a few stops to go. If you missed the rest of the blog tour, or want to hop on board for the final few days here are the dates and links so you can see lots of other versions of this super simple sew.

http://www.sewcraftychemist.blogspot.com/ 4/2/2014
http://www.detectivehoundstooth.com/  4/3/2014
http://www.cleverthinking99.com/  4/4/2014
http://trumbelinasews.blogspot.ca/  4/5/2014
http://danikate-designs.blogspot.com/  4/6/2014
http://sewingsaga.blogspot.com/   4/7/2014
http://sharonsews.blogspot.com/   4/8/2014
http://stitchininmykitchen.blogspot.com/ 4/9/2014
http://sewingforward.com/   4/10/2014
http://helloushandmades.blogspot.co.uk/  4/11/2014
http://www.craftedbycarrie.com/   4/12/2014
http://curveddarts.blogspot.com/  4/13/2014
http://www.janmade.blogspot.com/  4/14/2014
http://www.juliabobbin.com   4/15/2014